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Life Of Pi Argumentative Essay

452 Words2 Pages

In the story, Life of Pi, by Yann Martel, Pi has to go against his religion and fish to get food. He wants to stay alive and he has no other option. Pi is stranded in the middle of the ocean after a shipwreck. In Chapter 61 of this novel, Pi has to go fishing in order to feed the tiger stranded on the lifeboat with him, Richard Parker. He is raised as a vegetarian as part of his religion, but he is forced to go against that principles by fishing and killing a fish. Pi has no other option. If he wants to stay alive, he has to kill that fish. He has a very limited supply of food, and he is already beginning to starve. Pi says, “I thought this was remarkable considering how little I had eaten in the last several days.”, and “After a breakfast of three biscuits and one can of water, I read what the survival manual had to say on the subject.” (Martel 83). This evidence shows that Pi has to kill the fish because he needs food for himself, and for …show more content…

However, this is not true. Pi was literally stranded in the middle of the ocean with a tiger. He has no other food resources for himself or Richard Parker. Pi says, “The first problem arose: bait. I thought about it. There were the dead animals, but stealing food from under a tiger’s nose was a proposition I was not up to. He would not realize that it was an investment that would bring him an excellent return. I decided to use my leather shoe. I had only one left.” (Martel 84). This evidence shows that there is no other option for Pi to eat because he doesn’t even have bait for the fish. There are dead animals on the boat, but eating them would go against his religion as well. The only option he has is to eat an animal. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Pi is desperate to get food and stay alive. He has no other food for him to eat in the middle of the

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There is one moment in the story where all his developed instincts were challenged. He was met with a school of flying fish that would jump out of the water and into the lifeboat. He had wrapped one fish in a blanket and intended to kill it with a hatchet. He could not bring himself to kill this fish with a hatchet, but ultimately cannot go through with it. Pi ends

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In Yann Martel's book Life of Pi, Pi has to make some tough decisions that will ensure his survival. He courageously decides that he can no longer be vegetarian, for the only way to survive is to get protein by way of animal meat, he stays faithful through the toughest times, and he made the brave decision to keep Richard Parker on the boat with him. Pi makes moral sacrifices, despite his devout religious beliefs, that allow him to survive. " But enough is enough.

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